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Notre Dame Football: Should the Irish move on from Brian Kelly?

By Joel W. Cade

Nov 26, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly argues a call in the fourth quarter against the USC Trojans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC won 45-27. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 26, 2016; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly argues a call in the fourth quarter against the USC Trojans at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. USC won 45-27. Mandatory Credit: Matt Cashore-USA TODAY Sports /
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Nov 5, 2016; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly leads his team out to the field prior to a game against the Navy Midshipmen at Everbank Field. Mandatory Credit: Logan Bowles-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 5, 2016; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Notre Dame Fighting Irish head coach Brian Kelly leads his team out to the field prior to a game against the Navy Midshipmen at Everbank Field. Mandatory Credit: Logan Bowles-USA TODAY Sports /

The aftermath

The day after the Irish lost to USC 45-27, Brian Kelly issued a statement that he was “fully committed” to leading the Irish in 2017.

Yet, at the same time Yahoo! and ESPN were reporting that Brian Kelly was exploring other coaching opportunities through his representative.

The nasty side of being political reared its ugly head again. Kelly is doing the politically correct thing by showing support and commitment to Notre Dame. At the same time, he explored other opportunities through his various back channels.

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To be fair to Kelly, he has always been a ladder climbing careerist. He has repeatedly demonstrated a willingness to move on to the bigger and brighter opportunity when it presents itself. Thus, his exploring new coaching opportunities is simply par for the course for Kelly.

Yet, while he was exploring other opportunities, Kelly began to put his political acumen back to work fixing the problems that marred the 2016 season.

Kelly attacks the problem much in the same way a good politician would. He begins to rebuild the bridges he burnt down during the season.

First, he explores replacements for the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator and special teams coaches. By replacing the trifecta of coaches on his staff, Kelly essentially tore the coaching staff down to nuts and bolts. In its place will be a staff that will bring a complete change to the way the Irish play on the field. Replacing the coaching staff allows Kelly to admit there were coaching concerns but remain immune to the culpability himself.

Second, Kelly rebuilds bridges with the players. As he states in the press conference, he interviewed 96 players to gauge their pulse on what went wrong, what went wrong and what needed to be changed.  The result is a more visible Brian Kelly who engages with his players at a more personal level. Building bridges galvanizes the team to rally around Kelly as the head coach.

The political activities of clearing house, galvanizing players and giving the program a new direction are exactly the reasons Kelly was a good fit at Notre Dame.

But is the team building activity a change of heart for Kelly? Or does he see his own best interesting lying outside of Notre Dame?

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